A suicide car bomber attacked an American military convoy on the road to Kabul's airport on Saturday, killing a U.S. soldier and four Afghans and sending flames shooting into the sky, officials said. The bombing — on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan — threw several vehicles on their side. Four Afghans were killed and 12 wounded, the Health Ministry said. The attack was against U.S. troops responsible for training the Afghan military and police. Lt. Col. David Johnson, a U.S. spokesman, said one American soldier died in the blast and one was wounded. "There was an enormous explosion, the windows of my shop shattered," said tailor Mohammad Isaq. "When I came out I saw the foreigners' vehicles on fire. I saw two injured Afghans and I ran to help them."
This year has been the most violent of the six-year effort, the result of the U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban for hosting al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. More than 5,100 people have died in insurgency-related violence in 2007, according to an Associated Press count based on Afghan and Western officials.
| Usually we add at this point that they were mostly insurgents... |
| Kabul police in the last six months prevented 156 terror attacks, including 18 suicide bombings. He said one man from Morocco, one from Saudi Arabia and several from Pakistan were among the 18 would-be suicide attackers arrested. |
Abdul Manan Farahi, Kabul's counterterrorism chief, said Kabul police in the last six months prevented 156 terror attacks, including 18 suicide bombings. He said one man from Morocco, one from Saudi Arabia and several from Pakistan were among the 18 would-be suicide attackers arrested.